Developments in New Foil Structures for Metallic Substrates (Catalytic Converters) and Their Applications on 2/3 Wheeled Vehicles

Metallic Catalytic Converters employ alternate layers of flat and corrugated metal foils. To impart higher efficiencies to metallic catalytic converters, there have been progressive developments in the area of foil structures. The constructional details as well as performance behaviour of some of these structures have been reported earlier for automobile applications. In this paper the details of these new structures and the catalyst performance improvement applied to smaller size 2/3 wheeled vehicles are discussed.

Transversal Foil Structures (TS) earlier studied and experimented for automobiles have shown improved catalytic performance. Analysis was made for two representative sizes of TS Structure applicable for 2/3 wheelers. It is seen that TS structure improves catalytic converter performance for smaller sizes also. This improvement can be utilized to reduce the Catalytic Converter volume and catalyst loading for same performance as compared to regular substrate. Reduced size offers improved light off characteristics compared to regular substrate.

Emission tests were conducted with PE substrate on a 70 CC engine vehicle. The results show improved performance.

The results of emission tests carried out on a vehicle having 150 cc engine with Longitudinal Structures (LS) design of substrate as well as accelerated durability test on Inner Thermal Cycling (ITC) and Hot Shake Test (HST) test rigs for the selected application are also reported. The results show improved performance for the application.